MG ZS EV Intermittent AC Charging Issue

TschZS

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Hi everyone,

Long time reader, first time poster. Have always found this forum useful to diagnose issues I face with my Mk1 ZS EV but I've come across something I'm stumped on. I purchased my car new (had been sitting in the dealer's yard for some time) last year, it is a 2021 MG ZS EV Mk1 (Standard range is all we have in Australia).
For the last 9 or so months I have gotten by using the supplied 10A granny charger, but about 6 months ago I noticed an issue with it where the car would stop charging when nowhere near full, and the granny would flash both the charge and power lights as if the charge had completed. At that time, I found I could get the car to charge again if I plugged it and replugged it in, but it would only charge for about 5 to 10 minutes before doing the exact same thing.
This occurred over any SoC and was no more frequent at lower SoCs than higher.
I initially blamed the granny charger, naively. The issue was so intermittent though that by the time I was sufficiently frustrated to report the issue to my local dealer, the problem would disappear again and not reappear for weeks.
In frustration one day, I bought a Level 2 charger/EVSE online, and had it installed last week. It worked fine initially, but then just like clockwork, the issue has returned. I can confirm it is not the wall charger as it's occurring on the granny too (please see video).
All I get is the 'connected but not charging' and the car will whirr the locking mechanism every minute or so. The only 'fix' seems to be to unplug it for a while and try again in a few hours, in hope it works.

Today when it occurred, it had charged fro 40 minutes on the wall charger before suddenly refusing any further and displaying the 'connected but not charging'.
I have now asked my dealer to look into it and I'm awaiting a call back, but considering the lack of knowledge around EVs and the fact I cannot replicate the issue on demand leaves me thinking that the dealer is going to tell me nothing is wrong, and send me home.
FYI - there is a Level 2 AC charger (BYO Cable) at a shopping centre that this consistently occurs at, too.

Any thoughts? Faulty onboard charger?

Thanks
 
First thing I'd do is disconnect the -ve battery terminal for a minute or so to see if that resets anything.
Also make sure your 12v is good.
 
First thing I'd do is disconnect the -ve battery terminal for a minute or so to see if that resets anything.
Also make sure your 12v is good.
Just an update - the issue disappeared for a few weeks and is back again so I tried this - no help unfortunately. I’ve been chasing my dealer for 2 weeks to get it booked in but they’re horrible with returning calls.
 
I had issues with my gen 1 refusing to charge. When the garage got hold of it, there were loads of random error codes, almost like the car had got it's knickers in a twist. They deleted all the codes and it now charges fine. Fingers crossed your issue is something as simple as that?!
 
Thanks for the info! So did yours charge at all, randomly? I had mine just charge on 7kW for about 20 minutes before spitting the dummy. Interesting that would leave a fault code?
 
Bizarrely mine would charge on a granny plug but not the box on the wall. The garage said the error messages that appeared were very random and nothing to do with charging. We think a power cut whilst plugged in caused the issue...
 
Hi everyone,

Long time reader, first time poster. Have always found this forum useful to diagnose issues I face with my Mk1 ZS EV but I've come across something I'm stumped on. I purchased my car new (had been sitting in the dealer's yard for some time) last year, it is a 2021 MG ZS EV Mk1 (Standard range is all we have in Australia).
For the last 9 or so months I have gotten by using the supplied 10A granny charger, but about 6 months ago I noticed an issue with it where the car would stop charging when nowhere near full, and the granny would flash both the charge and power lights as if the charge had completed. At that time, I found I could get the car to charge again if I plugged it and replugged it in, but it would only charge for about 5 to 10 minutes before doing the exact same thing.
This occurred over any SoC and was no more frequent at lower SoCs than higher.
I initially blamed the granny charger, naively. The issue was so intermittent though that by the time I was sufficiently frustrated to report the issue to my local dealer, the problem would disappear again and not reappear for weeks.
In frustration one day, I bought a Level 2 charger/EVSE online, and had it installed last week. It worked fine initially, but then just like clockwork, the issue has returned. I can confirm it is not the wall charger as it's occurring on the granny too (please see video).
All I get is the 'connected but not charging' and the car will whirr the locking mechanism every minute or so. The only 'fix' seems to be to unplug it for a while and try again in a few hours, in hope it works.

Today when it occurred, it had charged fro 40 minutes on the wall charger before suddenly refusing any further and displaying the 'connected but not charging'.
I have now asked my dealer to look into it and I'm awaiting a call back, but considering the lack of knowledge around EVs and the fact I cannot replicate the issue on demand leaves me thinking that the dealer is going to tell me nothing is wrong, and send me home.
FYI - there is a Level 2 AC charger (BYO Cable) at a shopping centre that this consistently occurs at, too.

Any thoughts? Faulty onboard charger?

Thanks

hi similar symptoms on my 2yr old ZS. Couldn't charge for several days but DC charge on public charger ok. Garage couldn't find fault first time I took it in & it was ok for a few days then stopped again. next time garage couldn't make it charge & couldn't find fault so MG told them to fit a new on board charger. Fine now & I don't have to lock the car to charge
 
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Just an update on my original post in case Sam Luscombe is watching as I ran out of time.
I found Luscombes Leeds very good on the job once my charging problem was confirmed.
They sent a driver to pick my car up, fitted a new OBC & returned my car within 4hrs all FOC within the no quibble warranty.
Now I don't have to lock the car to start the charge & it doesn't stop if I unlock it. Best of all a full charge gives me another 25/30 miles which leaves me to believe that the AC settings on the original were not optimum.
 
Just an update on my original post in case Sam Luscombe is watching as I ran out of time.
I found Luscombes Leeds very good on the job once my charging problem was confirmed.
They sent a driver to pick my car up, fitted a new OBC & returned my car within 4hrs all FOC within the no quibble warranty.
Now I don't have to lock the car to start the charge & it doesn't stop if I unlock it. Best of all a full charge gives me another 25/30 miles which leaves me to believe that the AC settings on the original were not optimum.
I’m in Australia and have been having this battle now for well over a month. EVCC and Charge port replaced but no OBC replacement yet, has now been back in the shop twice for warranty repairs. MG say this time they cannot find the issue so the car has been handed back to me, but I bet it will play up again. When they first found the issue, it seems the control pilot would just sit on 9 volts and not move down to 6V to initiate the charge. I still am sure it's the OBC at fault.
 
I have a bit of a same situation here. I am owning a 2019 MG ZS EV Luxury for a couple of months now (the Netherlands).

I have been using the granny and it works perfectly. Also public normal and fast chargers work great. But I have been using an Easee Charge for some weeks now and it only charge for a couple of minutes each time. Then the Easee app says it is completed. When I press the lock button one time (when it is already locked), it starts charging again for some minutes.

Can somebody tells me if it is car related or charger related? I have heard that using a PLC somewhere in the house could lead to some issues with de MG, but I havent asked the dealer about this yet.
 
I have a bit of a same situation here. I am owning a 2019 MG ZS EV Luxury for a couple of months now (the Netherlands).

I have been using the granny and it works perfectly. Also public normal and fast chargers work great. But I have been using an Easee Charge for some weeks now and it only charge for a couple of minutes each time. Then the Easee app says it is completed. When I press the lock button one time (when it is already locked), it starts charging again for some minutes.

Can somebody tells me if it is car related or charger related? I have heard that using a PLC somewhere in the house could lead to some issues with de MG, but I havent asked the dealer about this yet.

If the car charges on any other charger but Easee, I would guess it's the problem with the charger. Is there customer support you can call?
(what is PLC ?)
 
If the car charges on any other charger but Easee, I would guess it's the problem with the charger. Is there customer support you can call?
(what is PLC ?)

PLC stands for powerline communication which are used in adapters to transport ethernet over a 230 volt socket very often. Like TP link or Allnet. I have removed the Allnet adapter and now it seems to work. I will continuing investigating this the upcoming days.

As far as I haven been told at another Dutch forum, using a device in your house that uses PLC, could cause confusion at the car as older MG ZS EVs may think that a DC charger is connected while it is AC. I don't know how this is technically possible and if there is an update to solve this, but I will check with my dealer upcoming week.
 
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PLC stands for powerline communication which are used in adapters to transport ethernet over a 230 volt socket very often. Like TP link or Allnet. I have removed the Allnet adapter and now it seems to work. I will continuing investigating this the upcoming days.

As far as I haven been told at another Dutch forum, by using a device in your house that uses PLC, could cause confusing at the car as older MG ZS EVs may think that a DC charger is connected while it is AC. I don't know how this is technical is possible and if there is an update for this to solve this, but I will check it with my dealer upcoming week.

I have TP link and use "granny 3kW charger" which is connected to my WiFi and uses the same electricity circuit that TP-Link is using for internet - they are plugged next to each other! I have no problems.

Contact customer services for your charger and ask what's going on and contact TP-Link, they might be able to suggest how to "isolate" the charger from the signal
 
using a device in your house that uses PLC, could cause confusion at the car as older MG ZS EVs may think that a DC charger is connected while it is AC. I don't know how this is technically possible
With the Combined Charging System (CCS) that MGs use, DC charging communications uses PLC on the control pilot signal. It looks like there is a simple "present or not present" test in the Charge Control Unit (CCU), rather than checking whether the PLC packets are valid CCS data.

As for why some people get away with it and others don't, I guess it just depends on how much of the PLC signal leaks into the control pilot wire. That depends on many factors like length and arrangement of cables, presence of metal near the cables, and so on.
 
I have TP link and use "granny 3kW charger" which is connected to my WiFi and uses the same electricity circuit that TP-Link is using for internet - they are plugged next to each other! I have no problems.

Contact customer services for your charger and ask what's going on and contact TP-Link, they might be able to suggest how to "isolate" the charger from the signal

As far as I have been told, the granny has a feature to filter the PLC and makes it to work as it should.

With the Combined Charging System (CCS) that MGs use, DC charging communications uses PLC on the control pilot signal. It looks like there is a simple "present or not present" test in the Charge Control Unit (CCU), rather than checking whether the PLC packets are valid CCS data.

As for why some people get away with it and others don't, I guess it just depends on how much of the PLC signal leaks into the control pilot wire. That depends on many factors like length and arrangement of cables, presence of metal near the cables, and so on.
Thank you for your additional information.
 
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